30 Father's Days later

Several of my friends have lost their dads recently.

They are experiencing their first Father's Day without a Dad in the world.

This is my 30th.

The man on the left is Arthur Eugene Jones, born 1918, died 1980. He's my Dad.

This is our 1960 family, with wife/Mom Sylvia, and with me, Celeste, Mitchell.
Art was far from perfect, and he died way too soon.

But I learned about hard work from him, from watching him work hard, with his callused hands and sinewy muscles. He was physically small (his WWII Navy uniform fits me!) but quite strong. He would stretch out his arms, let a child hang on each wrist, and hold us up,feet dangling, turning and spinning like a human merry-go-round. Quite a way to impress one's 10 year friends!

Art was a janitor in a public school system, and ran the boilers that heated the school. I learned from him that there was no job I was 'too good for'---that all work was good work, and work was our purpose in this world. To work hard and be of service.

I did have to learn to run when he put his hand on his belt buckle.

But I also learned:

"Be prepared",

"Maintainence costs less than repairs"......

and "Don't draw to an inside straight".

I never did learn that idea of 'keeping a poker face'.

And I'm in uncharted territory now, being older already than he had the chance to be.

Art was far from perfect, and he died way too soon.

Nonetheless, 30 years later, Dad, Happy Father's Day, and thanks, and I love you.

Love always,

Your daughter, Renee

44 years now.......wow, that went fast!

Going to work as a nurse brings unexpected experiences. Even when you think you've 'seen it all.

Two patients touched my heart today, two completely different stories of two men's lives. Our 25 year old patient, who suffered a heart attack after using crystal meth. No coronary artery disease, but a good old-fashioned heart attack. No English. A brother and a girlfriend and a toddler. Discharged him, with Narcotics Anonymous literature in his language, and medication instructions, and saying a silent prayer as I wheeled him to the car, for his life, and those whose lives he affects with his drug use. And off he went, smiling.

And our young ALS patient, who absolutely was done with this life, being completely unable to move or talk or breathe or eat on his own. He wanted everything turned off. So with family, social workers, doctors, and nurses, and pastoral care crossing all the T's and dotting all the 'I's" legally, with Morphine IV for comfort care, today was his "good day to die."

I reflected how we often choose the dates our children will be born into the world, with scheduling C-sections, but scheduling our day of passing out the other side is not something common. Or comfortable.

The CD player played big band and marching band music, he wore his VFW hat, the room filled with people and prayer. With all the machinery off, and with full knowledge, he breathed slower and slower. Then he smiled. And closed his eyes.

And off he went, smiling.

Truly, there's no other job I would have wanted in this life but to be a nurse.

Let me introduce my dear Anna to the blog world. You can see she's not much impressed with the whole idea, nor with the idea that I was leaving her 'yet again' for work today.

What doesn't show in the photo are the velcro tabs she uses to stay connected at all possible times to me, but that face can assure you that if she's ever lost in Utah, she will put her Herrier nose to the ground and will be singing 'do you know the way to san jose' all the way home!

Temple Grandin writes in 'Animals make us Human' that : "Dogs are very different from a lot of other animals we work with because they are hyper-social and hypersensitive to everything we do". Isn't that the truth! What a great companion she has become.......

Oh, Sunny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling....

With apologies to the original "Danny Boy", I'd like to introduce my new beau, my Sunny Boy. The moment the sun rises, my Sunny begins to hum her sweet tune to me,turning the sun's rays into electricity. Yes, my " long just a dream of solar"is now a reality, thanks to RealGoods and SunRun and financial arrangements they've thought of that make it possible! I am a 'host' home for more than 20 solar panels on my roof, and will make more electricty than I use.....wooooohoooooo.

A Dragonfly day

After a day of yardwork, and cleaning out a back bedroom (no small job, the way I accumulate stuff), I sat in the atrium with my afternoon coffee booster. And here she was, perched on the tip of the aloe plant, next to the small pond, sunning herself. Not a bit shy. What a sweet gift to see at the end of a tiring day.

First blog post-forward from here

So here we go.......A blog. Who would have guessed? What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?

Arriving kicking and complaining in the 21st century......

A caveat to the young ones who have 'friended' me on Facebook, these are the musings of an older friend caught in a time warp tonight. Read with caution. But if you are lucky, you also will be 62 one day! Thinking about some concert that took place when you were 18........ .............currently watching KQED's Paul McCartney concert at Citi Field (go Mets!) in 2009, "Good Evening New York City": time has wrapped itself around and inside out for me. 44 yrs ago The Beatles were in Flushing Meadows. I was in nursing school. Wow, that went fast....... I was not at this concert. My main claim to fame in those days is that I walked out of the Janis Joplin concert at Forest Hills, as I thought she was just screeching and had no talent. Oops..... Since then, the song "Yesterday" has been recorded by 2200 artists and performed 2 million times,' they' say. Must be figured out by someone who also does baseball statistics.. This concert fuses Paul McCartney, at near 70, with the young boy he was, with his comrades, in 1966, the screaming girls, the now bald drummer, then and now. Hard to keep track on the film what is then and what is now. Just like life (I warned you!) at this age. Sargeant Pepper's Yesterday calling Hey Jude, to us all, just Let it be...... In the language of my youth. what a trip!